Elephant Song

Elephant song is definitely a psychological thriller. It's really just about telling a story. It's not surprising that this movie didn't make any money. It's not a very appealing story. Some weirdo mental patient that likes to mess with his 'doctors'.

Trinity looks way different with hair.....

+1 Star For 2/3 of the way through, no major complaints, and the story is keeping me interested.....

+1 Star For the Climax of The Story and the Payoff of where it headed.

The ending was just about Perfect. A well told story with few flaws.

7/10

If you haven't watched the trailer yet, don't. The trailer gives too much away and robs the viewer of the sense of constant discovery, and there is a trove of things to discover.

This is a story of an unloved soul looking for a way out of the somber world of his own feelings and thoughts, while carrying the burden of a beautiful mind. Being a theater piece at its inception, the movie ravishes with its dialogues and beautiful scenes. The lack of color is abundantly compensated by the vivid close-ups, the overall suspense and poignant flashbacks.

Michael (the mental patient being the centerpiece of the story) is lovable from the first seconds as a character and as an actor playing the character. Xavier Dolan has a way of wooing people, so it's very hard not to fall in love with his performance and his character by the end of the movie. He's brisk, accurate, hits the target with every line, and when he opens up in the end, the beauty of it is so tremendous it pierces your heart like a golden needle. The performances of the other actors are no less impressive, but Dolan is an inevitable scene-stealer.

Tragedy here is more of a liberation of sorts. The witty and at times funny story takes a sharp turn into the abyss of emotional pain. All the elements fall into place perfectly, creating a feeling that you've just watched a short.

Elephant Song is a masterpiece worthy of watching and rewatching, listening and relistening. It will leave no string untouched.

This is a solid, really well acted film that requires you to pay attention if you are to find out the whole story. I find myself looking up what others wrote about it, the day after I saw it, and it is really to the film's credit that I am still thinking about it the following day. I have read reviews (not all of them here) that have erroneous information in them, particularly the reviews that are not all that great. It doesn't spell everything out for you, so if you're texting or making popcorn while you're watching it, you are going to miss something. I really liked it, but I found it sad and mournful, and wanting there to be a happy ending for the characters in the end. I recommend it if you don't need constant action to hold your attention.

The movie is interesting. The story keeps you guessing and the 'mystery' of missing doctor is good since the crazy man / boy is giving out the details, so you can never be sure whether it is true or not, or is he playing game.

I think that Xavier Dolan was really good at the role of mentally deranged Michael. The role suits him really good. Don't know why, but in some scenes I pictured him in some movies/series based on Marcel Proust's book. He would be perfect for one of the roles of Proust.

I did not really like the ending. It was ...hmmm ... too ordinary. And you see in the end that there was no mystery at all about the disappearance of the doctor. Also, the final scenes were kinda ...weak. But, all in all, quite good, except the last 3,4 minutes.

Eight from me.

When a psychiatrist mysteriously disappears after a session with a mentally disturbed young man, a colleague is brought in to coax answers out of the youth, which leads to mind games, trickery and emotional manipulation in this Canadian thriller. The film starts off well with a great sense of mystery in terms of what happened to the psychiatrist and what the young man is like; he is built up like Hannibal Lector in 'The Silence of the Lambs': a character with whom one has to be careful when talking to. Xavier Dolan (yes, the director of 'I Killed My Mother' and 'Laurence Anyways'!) is superb as the mysterious youth, "just because I'm crazy doesn't mean I'm stupid", while Bruce Greenwood is also solid as the colleague. The film is let down though by a humdrum solution to the mystery and while there is a small emotional wallop as one realises why Dolan has been institutionalised at the end, the final act does not resonate half as much as the opening act. Greenwood's home life is left hazy too; his daughter possibly has Down Syndrome, and he is living with a woman who he calls 'aunt', but is she his sister? Nothing is clear, including why his home life is even included. At its best and most focused though, 'Elephant Song' is a riveting portrait of two very intelligent individuals trying to one-up each other in conversation and manipulation with real tension in the air.